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Football

Golden Gaels keep playoff hopes alive

Queen's Golden Gaels’ Jeremy Pendergast scores a touchdown against the York Lions during the first half at Richardson Stadium on Saturday. The Gaels won the OUA game 52-34. (Steph Crosier/The Whig-Standard)

The Queen’s Golden Gaels, with a parade of first-half touchdowns, gave the Homecoming crowd of 7,522 plenty of chances to stand up, chant and sway to the Queen’s victory song in a 52-34 win over the York Lions.

Five of the Gaels six majors came in the first half when Queen’s took a 40-13 lead.

The Gaels were up 52-13 going into the fourth quarter before the Lions scored 21 points against the Gaels’ substitutions.

“Not quite as sharp as against Waterloo [a 68-17 win on Oct. 5.] but sharp enough to take control of the game,” Queen’s head coach Pat Sheahan said.

“I knew that the math favoured us so now a win against Toronto gets us in the playoffs.”

The Gaels, besides going to 3-4, got the desired result out of Ottawa when the Gee-Gees defeated the Waterloo Warriors 40-30.

The Gaels can move into a tie at 4-4 by beating the Toronto Blues (1-6) next Saturday. The Warriors are done their regular-season schedule and sit at 4-4. Queen’s wins a tiebreaker due to its win over Waterloo.

There is still the chance of a four-way tie for tor the final two playoff positions involving Queen’s, Waterloo, Carleton and Guelph. Sheahan said, “I think the math favours us” in that scenario.

“Regardless we still have to win. There is no point focusing on all the ifs and buts. It’s just go out there and win and make sure we are in the equation. That’s really what we’ve got to do.”

Hobbs had more than 300 yards passing for the third straight game — 27 for 41 for 362 yards — and running back Jake Puskas again was big for the ground game. Puskas, in his three quarters of play, rushed for 160 yards and scored two touchdowns.

“The first half was great for the defence but I think the key to it was really great field position. Our defence had a couple of great turnovers where we were able to start inside the 10 a couple times,” Hobbs said.

Nelkas Kwemo intercepted and returned the ball to the York 3 to set up a Hobbs-to-Del Brocco score. Nick Fraser-Greene recovered a midfield fumble and took it deep into Lions territory. Puskas finished the drive with a two-yard run.

Hobbs said it’s a different Queen’s team that has emerged over the last month.

“It’s an exciting time. It was sort of doom and gloom and despair the first four weeks. It seems as though we have dug ourselves out of the hole,” Hobbs said.

“It’s great. We are having a lot of fun. It’s happy times around the locker room.”

Hobbs said “even though we haven’t had the strongest of opponents these past couple weeks.” that he likes what is happening.

“I think the key for us has been putting the focus on us. We’ve got to keep getting better as a team so that when the playoffs come we are the best team that we can be,” he said.

“We want to be hitting our stride at the right time hopefully.”

GAME NOTES

Jeremy Pendergast and Rudy Uhl scored the other Queen’s touchdowns. Nick Liberatore was 2-for-4 in field goals and converted all six touchdowns ... Fullback Marquis Richards, who has been instrumental with his blocking in helping the protection for Hobbs, was injured the first time the Gaels went on offence. He was on crutches by the half and isn’t expected to play next week. ... Hobbs was sacked five times. He also had five runs for 35 yards ... Puskas delivered the longest run of the season when he broke tackles at the line of scrimmage and shook off some more 30 yards into what was a 68-yard run. He got to the York 2 and later scored the major, which made it 47-13,